Reporters at the weekly Shukan Bunshun news magazine here in Tokyo, Japan have written a rather caustic report about President Obama's 23 hours in Tokyo last week, from a frank Japanese perspective, exclusively in the Japanese language, and released to the newstands just now. In that sense this is more or less an *FR Exclusive*. A number of eye-opening claims, pieces of information and details emerge about Obama's brief stay in Japan as part of his disastrous Asian trip--over and above the very controversial, near-"dogeza" bow delivered as a Head of State of a superpower to the Emperor of Japan. There is criticism in this article for both the Obama Administration and their behavior, as well as within the Japanese government either in response or through their own incompetence. Either way, it does not make for a very pretty picture and is squarely at odds with the Administration which announced upon arrival in the US that the Asian trip was a "success". By what benchmark?

This Japanese magazine is a major weekly publication in Japan. I have as a courtesy provided a synopsis English translation, not word-for-word, of the main gist of the article. As always, the original Japanese authors' Japanese language version of the article prevails over the English. For general discussion, research and historical purposes.

--"To tell you the truth, it had to have been the worst US-Japan Summit Meeting in history," a source of ours at the Foreign Ministry revealed to us.

--For the first time since he was inaugurated as President of the USA in January, Obama had visited Japan for the first time on January 13th, and conducted a summit meeting with the Prime Minister, Yukio Hatayama. After their meeting, the two leaders conducted a press briefing. "We had a very deep, discreet discussion, and we even reached the point of being able to call each other 'Yukio' and 'Barack' ", the Prime Minister stated afterwards.

--Or so he accentuated the positive results of such a meeting with Obama. But the internal fact of the matter is, the US-Japan Summit Meeting was MISERABLE. (惨憺たるもの)

Indications that it would be chaotic were picked up in advance, even before President Obama arrived in Japan. "Even within the Japanese government there was and is still no agreement among the Japanese Cabinet Ministers on what to do about the Futenma USMC station in Okinawa situation (moving it to an offshore location or elsewhere), and for that reason the decision was being put in a holding pattern because of it, the US peppered their disbelief at Japan, stating "we don't know just who is saying what and if it is true on your side, the decision is taking too long." And that is when the U.S. side sent their anger to Japan in message form by their highly unusual, sudden, last-minute change in the schedule of Obama to come to Japan, a US journalist source revealed.

--The plan was for Obama to arrive in Japan on the November 12, have his summit meeting with Hatoyama on the 13th, and thereby jet out of Japan the following day, the 14th to Singapore for the APEC Summit meeting. The US journalist also revealed that the Obama administration made the sudden request to change this schedule for Obama to the 13th (arrival in Japan), on November 7. Said the same US journalist source, "their excuse for the delay was the shooting at Ft. Hood, Texas on the US Army base on November 5. But the fact of the matter is, the memoral service was on the November 10 and only took a day trip for Obama whereupon he returned immediately to Washington. After that, he had the National Security Council meeting on policy in Afghanistan on November 11th. However, he could have departed Washington D.C. right after that and could have still landed in Japan as everyone agreed and planned on, for the 12th."

--Additional screw-ups that created a possible conflict with the Emperor's schedule and the entire Cabinet celebrating his 20 years on the throne, can be traced to the Japanese Foreign Ministry. A ruling Democratic Party of Japan spokesperson said "at any rate, with four days in China for Obama, the fact is China is the big thing for them."

--Obama was made to wait five minutes in a car at the entrance way to the Prime Minister's Official Residence, which as seen as not only a diplomatic discourtesy, but a breach of security procedures, and furthermore it would be recalled the Prime Minister and his wife had kept Obama waiting for a long time in Pittsburg at the G-20 dinner as well, says foreign affairs specialist Oyama.

--It may have been felt as a diplomatic slight to get back at the Americans because of the very sudden, troublesome last minute schedule change.

--A DPJ ruling party official stated to Shukan Bunshun, that "in the Obama-Hatoyama summit itself, the Japanese side had a total of 14 officials, including six cabinet ministers, the Foreign Minister Okada, the Defense Minister Kitazawa, etc. but on the American side it was only "Team Obama" staff and hardly anybody else. There was agreement in advance that there would be no detailed discussion on any topics, and there was not even a dynamic give-and-take discussion in the meeting. It was to the point that even on the American side, there were those in the Obama delegation who were yawning and even some who were nodding off right there in the meeting."

--Prime Minister Hatoyama essentially left Obama on Japanese soil while he went ahead of Obama to the Singapore summit of APEC, leaving on the November 14 even while Obama still had major events in Japan such as delivering a major live speech and visiting the Imperial Palace, so this to was seen perhaps as a message leaving ahead of him like that as a country's host, observed a reporter attached to the Prime Minister's beat. The reason to go to Singapore like that was to tape-cut the grand opening of a Japan information center, but in order to do that, cutting time to be spent with the President of the US on Japanese soil is rather unprecedented, journalist Michael Yu observed.

--Before the US-Japan summit, the leader of the Socialist Party of Japan Ms. Fukushima, threatened that if the US Marines would move their base up to (the) Henoko offshore reef from the current Futenma location, then she would leave the Hatoyama coalition government. Well it seems Prime Minister Hatoyama is more afraid of Socialist Party leader Fukushima than he is President Obama of the USA, that is why he reversed himself on the committment about settling Futenma USMC Station issue so soon after meeting Obama.

--A source in the US government stated "US-Japan relations are having a problem, but it is not a crisis." --However, it does seem a crisis is approaching as we speak.

So much for sensitivity to local Japanese manners as a sign of respect (per the Obama-ites, in defense of "the bow") as illustrated in the underlined portion, and also the general, challengeable assertion by Mr. Axelrod immediately upon returning to Washington, D.C. that this recent charade in Asia was some how a "success".

The article cannot be viewed online (and it is only in Japanese) unless one has an online subscription to the magazine. It is out in hard copy though this week, on the Japanese news stands, in bookstores and in convenience stores throughout Japan, from cold, chilly Wakkanai in the north, to hot, summery Miyako Island in the south.

"--For the first time since he was inaugurated as President of the USA in January, Obama had visited Japan for the first time on January 13th, and conducted a summit meeting with the Prime Minister, Yukio Hatayama."

Must be a typo.

6
posted on 11/21/2009 9:29:15 AM PST
by Spunky
(You are free to make choices, but not free from the consequences)

I saw Japanese TV pool film footage of the delegation meeting with Hatoyama and his team, sound off, and they did look somewhat rude. I noticed Axelrod, Gibbs and Jarrett in there in the handshake lineup. A real group of winners. Wonder if they even put their feet up on the furniture over there, or of Rahm Emmanuel, if he was even there—not sure, dropped any “F” bombs. How wonderful.

Outside of severe battlefield situations such as in the heat of World War II, treat most if not nearly all Japanese with respect, and you will get respect back, maybe even double-fold. Treat them with contempt or rudeness--whether outwardly or under the surface, and you will get contempt and rudeness back (or they may hold in the rudeness but it will be under the surface regardless and you will get scr*wed in some other way some time later). Fundamental rule. We are all humans at the end of the day.

Eagles up! Ramp it up, man, 'cuz we are all in this together and those of us here in Asia, from me in Japan to you down there in Singapore, to people like TLR in Korea and maybe some FReepers in China who can quickly Freep and run from an internet cafe in Beijing before getting snagged by the PSB, there is a lot of stuff on this trip.

They left behind a pile of problems, if you ask me, and think the American People back home will never find out about it.

It sounds as if the new Japanese PM was repeatedly and deliberately rude to Obama, which is a bit of a reversal of Obama’s usual treatment of allied leaders.

I think I referred to these two leaders in an earlier thread as Pot and Kettle. Two disasters for their countries.

Let’s just hope we can survive the two of them. Obama just ASKS to be trampled on, and evidently that’s what happened. But he was no doubt too stupid to realize it, and probably none of his foreign advisers read Japanese.

And his own typical discourtesy at the start didn’t help.

He seems to attend these highly important summit meetings without doing any advance preparation at all. Fly over, preen for the cameras, insult his hosts, and play it by ear because he’s too smart to need any prepping seems to be his basic method.

Obama’s handlers seem to have no appreciation
for ON or Giri, I know we live in a modern age
but those still effect Japanese thought and action.
Obama will be paid back at some point and the longer
it takes the more it will be.

I have found amongst my japanese Aikido friends that
even the simplest gesture is reciprocated rather quickly
lest it grow to be unbearable.

Thank you again.

30
posted on 11/21/2009 9:55:37 AM PST
by tet68
( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)

They are both bad for their respective countries, in my opinion. The people in their respective countries panicked, also with a sense of hope in making a complete change from the past, but they may have even gotten things worse--in their irrationality coalescing in votes. At least there in the US it does seem they are slowly coming to their senses, so he has to act fast to ramrod anything through now I bet.

Over here, even Hatoyama's figures are starting to go south.

PS Japan reported pretty big today that Patrice Lumumuba Obongo's support in public opinion has dipped below 50% after hardly a year in office, per Gallup, a good steady decline shared by only a few other US Presidents. Pretty widely on the internet and elsewhere.

Actually, I am not an afficianado for Dubya but objectively speaking, yes, he did do well in Tokyo about two weeks ago before what’s his name got here. Endeared himself to Japanese university students, and also seemed to be enjoying himself; probably relieved of all that burden 24/7 is my take. Yes, he threw out a pitch, too.

He seems to attend these highly important summit meetings without doing any advance preparation at all. Fly over, preen for the cameras, insult his hosts, and play it by ear because hes too smart to need any prepping seems to be his basic method.

Thanks. I suspect Dubya did the trip to shore up discouraged conservatives who are dealing with a leftist juggernaut. Probably to get his face in there too because he knew Obowma's face would soon be dominating Japanese airwaves.

I'm pretty sure George still deals in politics, but he has a good time doing so.

But it is also kind of (funny?) to watch some charlatan-like blogs lift this academic work (such as a summary translation which does not happen by itself) and slap it up on their site, with absolutely no reference to or credit to Free Republic, and link to the Japanese magazine website directly, and then pass it off to look like it is their own work and efforts. Blogs like "Elite Trader". Whatever that is. Guess there will be more. Well. At least people will be reading, right?

The “bow” is pretty much a dead issue here now, but they did watch and comment on all the excitement it had in the USA. It would have been a much bigger story IMHO if it had been stuation that did not involve the Emperor directly. They probably wanted to be rather quiet about it out of deference to His Majesty and just let it slide. Obama could also be forgiven, out of the generousness of the hearts of many Japanese in cases like this, for his ignorance. (They could care less about 44, too, though.)

I don't know for a fact, but I suspect he did just as you said and "winged" it and kept the US Embassy in Tokyo locally out of the loop, for they must have been ready to advise him on those protocol procedures and save him a world of pain (and 3% in public opinion polls!). I would imagine that in their arrogant, elitist, Washington DC is the Center of the Universe US government way of looking at things, they knew better, (why, of course, much better then to have consulted with the local unwashed saps in flyover country), they flew into town, they made a mess of the place like Bulls in a Japan Closet--and probably don't even know the dimension that they messed things up--they did not need any local guidance or advice, flew just as quickly out of town, and now they are living the embarrassment and the US Embassy people have to clean up the mess and put a brave face on things. After all, they have careers on the line, too, so you won't here much stuff, unless it's frustrated backchannel off record, I suppose.

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